The California Legislature has left Sacramento for the remainder of the year, having completed their legislative business on August 31. Governor Brown had until September 30, 2018, to take final action on those bills that made it to his desk. This has been an extraordinarily active year.

Listed below are some of the notable bills that were acted on by the governor:

• AB 2751 (Stone) Signed: Western Growers requested a veto of this bill which requires the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) to process to final board order, within one year, all decisions concerning make-whole awards, backpay, and other monetary awards to employees, or any board order finding liability for an award. The board order would need to be followed even during the appeal process. AB 2751 also empowers the ALRB to force successor contracts through the mandatory mediation and conciliation process. Governor Brown vetoed a similar bill in 2015 (Campos, AB 561). Unfortunately, he took a different position and signed this bill into law.  
• AB 3080 (Gonzalez Fletcher) Vetoed: Western Growers requested a veto of this bill which, among other provisions, would have effectively placed a prohibition on requiring any applicant for employment or an employee from being required to waive their right to a judicial forum as a condition of employment or continued employment. This would have banned certain arbitration agreements. The governor agreed that AB 3080 would likely be preempted by federal law, and he vetoed the bill.
   
• AB 3081 (Gonzalez Fletcher) Vetoed:  Western Growers requested a veto of this bill regarding sexual harassment because it would have created another pathway of costly litigation against employers for issues that are already protected under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). AB 3081 also included language that would require a client employer to share with a labor contractor all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for all employment related harassment claims. The governor vetoed the bill.
   
• SB 100 (de Leon) Signed: Western Growers requested a veto of this bill which creates a policy goal for all of the state’s retail electricity to be supplied by 100 percent clean energy by 2045. We opposed this bill because of concerns that it creates additional business uncertainty and may lead to higher energy costs. The governor signed the bill.
   
• SB 1343 (Mitchell) Signed: The governor also signed this bill which requires that all employers with five or more employees must provide sexual harassment training to all of their employees by January 1, 2020. Supervisors will need to receive two hours of training and non-supervisorial employees will need to be trained for one hour. The bill also includes provisions specifying when training is to be provided to temporary or seasonal employees.

For more information, please contact Matthew Allen at (916) 446-1435.